It has been common practice to use a guidewire inserter for introduction of a catheter guidewire (long item) into a puncture needle, catheter, or sheath.
The guidewire inserter is used to straighten a guidewire having a curved tip. It is a cylindrical body made up of a guidewire inlet at its proximal end, a guidewire outlet at its distal end, and a guidewire passage connecting the inlet and outlet. It is used in such a way that the guidewire outlet is brought into contact with the proximal end of the puncture needle, catheter, or sheath, and the guidewire is inserted into the guidewire inlet and then further inserted into the puncture needle, catheter, or sheath through the guidewire passage and the guidewire outlet.
The conventional guidewire inserter as mentioned above has the disadvantage of presenting difficulties in inserting into the inserter a guidewire having a curved tip. The guidewire is so curved as to fit to a specific part of blood vessel. Therefore, with the conventional guidewire inserter, it is difficult to inert a guidewire having a curved tip (in J shape, double-angle shape, or angle shape) into the inserter while straightening the curved tip.
In order to address this problem, in JP 7-155382 A, there has been proposed a guidewire inserter having a groove, which introduces the guidewire, at its proximal end (near the guidewire inlet). This groove has a V-shaped cross section whose width remains constant in the longitudinal direction of the guidewire inserter and changes in the thickness direction of the guidewire inserter.
However, the above-mentioned guidewire inserter having a groove at its proximal end does not permit the recent guidewire with a sharply curved J-shape tip to be inserted easily, with the curved tip being straightened.
The difficulty in inserting the guidewire into the opening of the rear end of the guidewire inserter may be solved by inserting the rear end of the guidewire into the distal end (or the guidewire outlet) of the guidewire inserter and then moving the guidewire inserter to the distal end of the guidewire. This procedure, however, takes a long time to move the guidewire inserter from the rear end to the distal end of a guidewire longer than 150 cm.
The above-mentioned problem is also involved with the angiography catheter, which needs a catheter inserter to straighten the curved tip at the time of insertion into the living body.
Another problem with the conventional guidewire inserter is that it is difficult to connect the distal end (or the guidewire outlet) of the guidewire inserter to the proximal end of the puncture needle, catheter, or sheath. The incomplete or misaligned connection prevents smooth insertion of the distal end of the guidewire, with its curved tip straightened.
During operation, it is often necessary to hold both the guidewire and the guidewire inserter with one hand. It is also necessary to hold both the guidewire and the guidewire inserter simultaneously in order to take out the guidewire from the container (or the holder tube) and insert it into the guidewire inserter. The conventional guidewire inserter prevents handling in such a way, with the result that only the guidewire inserter is pulled off from the holder tube.